Day With Wife
Lotte Plaza – First stop was the Lotte Plaza, which is an enormous Asian market with a Asian food court. I found this place by accident once, and they sell foods I’ve never heard of before, so I told Kerry I’d take her there on our next day off. She had Indian food and I had some Korean. My spicy pork was great. I’ve marked that place as to where to buy my next teaware next time I’m in need.
Game Parlor – The Game Parlor is one of the biggest and most popular gaming shops in DC metro. I like being in there, their staff is very friendly and helpful, but if I had two complaints- 1) I have no idea how anything is organized and 2) they have expansions for a lot of games, but not the base set. Last Night On Earth expansions, but no core came. Material for the Savage Worlds system, but no core books, etc. The organization thing is one that must have really caused mental duress in my wife, being a librarian.
Coffeesmith – A small coffee place in the same plaza as the other two shops. They have iPads for people to use on a table that demands you don’t have any food or drinks on the same table as those iPads in a coffeeshop. That seems a bit unusual, but, hey, free use of iPads. The iced Americano I bought was great.
Regal Fairfax Towne Center 10 – We went to this theater to see Brave, which was good, even though I wasn’t in the target demograhpic. It’s a movie for girls, the main plot revolving around a princess (who doesn’t really want to be a princess or do princess things) and her mother, the queen. I liked it, but the next girl power movie that I see, I hope it doesn’t have every single male character being a violent baffoon.
What I didn’t like about this stop was the theater staff hounding us for donations. At the ticket stand, “Would you like to donate to children with cancer?” “No, no thank you,” then at the guy who takes the tickets, “Would you like to donate to kids with cancer?” “No.” Then after the movie, “Save the whales!” from a kid who was actually on his knees holding his jar out to passerbys. I think he improved that part himself. No way a self-respecting teenager would allow himself to be degraded past having to wear the uniform and sell sugar water for minimum wage. Or would he?
DC Metro – One of my favorite parts of being in DC is using the Metro. Their central stations in particular are just fascinating. I told Kerry that the DuPont station’s entrance looked like Russians built it, despite having a Waltman quote engraved in the cement. On the way home, the rail between two of the stations was out, so we were bussed between those two. On the way to that station there was a guy with a bicycle who I thought for sure was a bit drunk who was not very happy about the line ending before where he wanted to get off sharing that displeasure with us specifically and everyone else generally.
James Hoban’s Irish Restaurant & Bar – Our dinner were bangers and mash (mine) and sheperd’s pie (Kerry’s). It was good. The restaurant was very well filled up with young professionals who were getting a good start on their weekend with Hoban’s cocktails and beer.
Keegan Theater – Here was the crown of our night, the Keegan Theater’s production of Spring Awakening, my favorite music. Also, good to see.